


Best Raid Night Ever

by dredshirtroberts



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Cute, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Modern AU, mmorpg au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28296087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dredshirtroberts/pseuds/dredshirtroberts
Summary: Eskel's boyfriend is stressed out, and he doesn't know how to help. Maybe a raid will let off some steam?
Relationships: Eskel (The Witcher)/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Best Raid Night Ever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [concertconfetti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/concertconfetti/gifts).



> This is a christmas gift for my QPP and best beta reader **ever** : [ConcertConfetti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/concertconfetti/pseuds/concertconfetti). Features their OC Ashwood of Daevon in an established relationship in (one of many of) my Modern MMORPG AU that I haven't got any other works for because I'm bad at coming up with idea concepts and then _never writing shit for them_ , lol. They helped me develop this particular universe a lot and I wanted to write something cute and kinda fluffy and silly for them, and this is what I came up with. Hope you like it dear!!! <333333333 I LOVE YOU!!!!!
> 
> unbeta'd (obviously, can't have the beta beta-read their own gift after all) so all mistakes are mine.

Ashwood, Eskel knew, was _stressing out._ He wasn’t sure about _what_ exactly, but it was Definitely Something.

But he hadn’t said anything, and so Eskel decided he would wait until Ashwood was ready to talk about it. In the meantime he would help relieve other stresses as best he could, by helping take care of Homeplate and watering plants and cooking dinner and just being there as they gamed with their group.

A month went by and Ashwood was only growing more distressed and Eskel decided maybe waiting for him to come out with it wasn’t the best plan after all.

**To: Geralt :horse:**  
>hey. i got a question.  
 **From: Geralt :horse:**  
>what’s up?  
 **To: Geralt :horse:**  
>hypothetically if sum1 i care about is upset about sumthing but wont talk about it, how do i bring up that i alreddy no theyre stressed out & give them n opening 2 talk?

Eskel waits when the animated ellipsis comes up to tell him Geralt is typing. It goes away, then it comes back for a while, and Eskel’s discomfort increases because Geralt _never_ takes this long to type something. The ellipsis comes and goes a few more times.

Finally the text comes through. It’s short.

**From: Geralt :horse:**  
>he’ll talk about it soon, i promise.

Well that was _unhelpful_ and weirdly cryptic. Eskel shook his head and set his phone back down on his desk and scrubbed at his eyes under his glasses. He’d finish this block of code for his particularly irritating client, get the invoice sent out for his services and then pack up his laptop and shit to go join Ashwood for raid night. It was way more fun to play in the same room as his boyfriend.

_Boyfriend_. That was still such an exciting word, even though it had been actual _months_ since their accidental encounter at the greenhouses where Ashwood worked, and he’d been trying to flirt with the man over the game for months before that even. Not that Eskel was very good at that, but, well. They got there in the end, and that’s what mattered.

He tapped away at his keyboard, cursing and fighting the code at every step. Finally, _finally_ , the script ran with no hiccups, and everything was fine. He launched it onto the mirror site to show to the client and sent the invoice—it would go live when he got paid and not a minute before. He’d been fucked over a few times with that in the early days and he had a _system_ now. His phone had been blinking its stupid LED at him for a while now and he finally looked down to check what in the _fuck_ had been sent to him.

He noticed the time and the _several_ texts in the group chat and cursed violently, shoving himself away from his desk as he rushed through getting his set up together to take to Ashwood’s. He fired off a quick text to the group chat, apologizing and then another to Ashwood.

**To: Ash :heart_eyes_cat:**  
>sry. omw. c u soon <3  
 **From: Ash :heart_eyes_cat:**  
>No worries :) see you in a bit. Door’s unlocked, don’t let HP out. <3

Eskel grinned down at the stupid little heart emoji, his heart pattering in his chest. It was dumb, he knew it was dumb, to get all worked up over it but he hadn’t stopped feeling butterflies about it since the first one Ashwood had sent as Sage over the private in-game chat before they’d even met. 

One day he might even get up the gumption to actually say the words he kept _not saying_ at Ashwood. Until then, he’d just do his best to show it to him however he could.

Fifteen minutes later he was letting himself into Ashwood’s place, shoving his leg in through the door before the rest of himself to ward off the potential monster-cat on the other side.

“It’s just me!” he called into the hall, finding no cat awaiting him at the door impatiently. He learned why when he heard Ashwood’s voice coming from the kitchen.

“Mahm. Mahm. No. Mahm. Here.” The recorded words on Homeplate’s speech-pad returned through the house.

“Yes, Homeplate, I know. I know he’s here. I can hear him too,” Ashwood called back through the house, his actual location coming from his room. Eskel grinned and walked through the house.

“Hi Homeplate!” He called to the cat whose heavy padding steps came thudding through the hall, the large orange cat meowing at him. He reached down to scratch at his ears when he reached Ashwood’s bedroom, “Sorry again for being late. Fucking code wouldn’t just _work.”_ Eskel grumbled, though his bad mood had alleviated almost instantly when he’d heard back from Ashwood earlier.

“Ugh, that’s the _worst!”_ Ashwood groaned in solidarity, turning in his chair though he didn’t remove his headset, the wire trailing behind him to his computer. “Oh!” 

Ashwood’s eyebrows were raised to his hairline as he stared up at Eskel, his mouth dropping open a little. Eskel scratched at the large scars on his face self-consciously, “What? Is there something on my face?” He tried to joke. It fell a little flat as Ashwood nodded before he could finish his sentence.

“Are...are the glasses new?” Eskel felt his face. Ah _fuck_ , he’d left them on. He usually tried to leave them at his desk so he wouldn’t lose them.

“No, just not supposed to leave the desk,” He grumbled as he pulled them off. “Shit, now I’m gonna have to remember them when I leave."

“What do you need them for?” Ashwood cocked his head to the side and his voice was filled with genuine curiosity. He made a face briefly and shook his head as someone in the voice chat was loud enough to hear even from across the room out of his headset, “One moment.” Eskel smiled, rummaging through his laptop bag. He wondered if he’d kept the glasses case in here like he was supposed to, or if it was sitting somewhere else in his house. He really didn’t want to forget his glasses.

Ashwood turned back to the screen and clicked into the chat box, typing furiously for a moment and from his vantage point Eskel could just make out several emojis of middle fingers being sent in a row after the line of text. Ah, _Lambert_ must have said something rude over the voice chat then. A second, even longer row of middle finger emojis was sent below that and Ashwood scoffed, before turning back to Eskel, deliberately taking off his headset and setting it down first.

“Clam’s started early then?” Eskel joked, beginning to unpack his bag.

“No, Clambert started right on time, you’re just late,” Ashwood teased, leaning forward in his computer chair and reaching out his arms to where Eskel was setting up in a bean bag chair on the floor. “Come here. I require a kiss.”

A loud “EW! GROSS! EW!” came through the headset and Ashwood chuckled as Eskel leaned up on his knees to reach his boyfriend for the requested kiss. Their lips pressed together softly and Eskel sighed. Fuck he loved this man _so fucking much._ They exchanged a few chaste kisses before Eskel pulled back, grinning impishly and then leaned closer to Ashwood’s headset and made several very wet kissing sounds right near the microphone.

“MY EARS! MY SWEET VIRGIN EARS! HOW COULD YOU!” Lambert’s voice screeched through the headset as Eskel chuckled.

“Virgin ears my ass,” Eskel rolled his eyes, making sure to speak loud enough for Lambert to hear him, “You pretty much asked for that, dickbrain.”

He couldn’t hear Lambert’s continued protests as he moved away from the desk to continue setting up, giving Ashwood one last kiss. Ashwood laughed, pushing him away as he turned back to his headset, putting it on over his ears as he tapped again on the keyboard to send another message.

Eventually Eskel was also set up, his own headset on and logged into Fate’s Call. He tapped into the voice chat to catch the tail end of another one of Lambert’s bitching sessions and sent an apology to the raid chat.

< **EskelTheWitcher:** sorry again guys. work sucked today. ready to go when u are>  
< **Vesemir:** Life happens. Let’s get this started, if everyone else is ready?>  
< **HerbGardenQueer:** Ready!>

Ashwood’s character hopped around on screen excitedly, the large cat avatar very reminiscent of Homeplate who now sat curled up on Ashwood’s bed over Eskel’s shoulder. He grinned at the screen as a slew of other similar messages from the rest of their guildmates came through.

“Fuck yeah, I’m ready!” Lambert’s voice called over the voice chat. “Been ready since this goddamn morning. Let’s kill this fucker!”

The raid was new to the game, having just been added in the last expansion two months ago and the guild _had_ been raring to go at it, Kaer Morhen at the top of the leaderboard for first-completions on all previous raids and dungeons on the server. And they’d tried several times already, but the last boss was a fucking _nightmare_ and no matter what they did they couldn’t quite get it down. They had tried several different configurations, Geralt playing different alts to try to even the playing field against the boss.

Nothing they’d tried so far had worked yet but they were _determined_. They had all night and they were _going_ to get this. They _had_ to or they ran the risk of the fucking Inquisition getting to it first and that was _not allowed._

Their first attempt of the night went about as well as their previous attempts at the raid, which was to say _disastrously_. Ten of their party went down in the first ten seconds of the boss fight, and Ashwood hadn’t been able to get anyone up before he too went down. Geralt was running Roach 3, a healer spec druid, max level, and _he_ couldn’t help them either.

They were regrouping at the meeting spot when the guild chat alerted them to two people coming online.

“Oh thank _fuck,”_ Lambert groused over the voice chat as twin beeps signaled that the cousins were also in the VC, “Maybe you’ll have some insight on how to fucking beat this asshole.”

“Well, Clambert, dear, if you _really_ want to beat up an asshol–”

“Jaskier, _no,”_ Mieczyk’s voice came deadpan over the line. “Though… have we tried the run with a bard yet?”

< **Vesemir:** I don’t believe so, no. I don’t know that it will help much.>

Mieczyk’s thick Polish accent was difficult to understand over the VC but he spoke slowly to compensate for it, “What if we take Jaskier? He has surprised us before with the Bard skills.”

“Yeah the beating up people with the Lute was definitely new,” Lambert commented. “What level is he?”

“ _He_ is right here and also level fifty. Mieczyk has been helping me do the grind, which considering how poorly he dances is amusing!” Jaskier laughed brightly. A groan rumbled through the VC accompanied by a thudding sound as Mieczyk presumably clonked his head on his desk.

“Aw, Lils! You didn’t tell me you were a professional grinder,” Lambert teased as Mieczyk’s character went still on the screen as he had some sort of reaction to the conversation on his end of the line.

“Alright, enough. Is Jaskier coming with us or not? He’s like thirty levels lower than the suggested level for this raid, but we’ve carried him through worse,” Eskel asked through the chat, not bothering to try and type. His hands were already starting to cramp and he wondered if he’d need his wrist braces before the end of the night. Probably, now that he thought about it. He turned from the screen as he listened to the chatter over the voice chat, rummaging through his bag again and pulling out the braces, sliding them on to support his wrists.

Would gaming be a lot easier on his desktop, with an ergonomic chair and keyboard set up? Probably, but Eskel wouldn’t give up the chance to look up from his screen and watch Ashwood animatedly gesture at his screen while he talked to their friends for _anything_.

Eventually everyone settled down and it was decided they would bring Jaskier along on the raid. It wasn’t like he would make them _worse_ , after all.

“Aiden you absolutely _filthy_ bastard,” Ashwood muttered at his computer as they waited for the raid to load properly. Eskel glanced up at his boyfriend who was flushing brightly, “If mami heard you talk like that you’d be sentenced to dishes for an _eternity_ , dios mio, hermano.” 

Eskel checked the guild chat and only saw one message from Aiden in there.

< **CallMeSir:** ;) >

Eskel had _no idea_ what they were talking about and scrolling up through the text chat did not help him at all. But knowing Aiden, Ashwood was probably completely justified in his chastisement.

And then they were raiding.

It took them longer than before, carrying Jaskier through it. He did practically no damage to the trash monsters and less than that to the mini bosses, and a single swipe from any of them would take him out for the count. But they eventually did make it to the final boss room. Just outside the stopped to regroup.

< **Vesemir:** Alright, folks. We’ve tried everything. What worked best so far?>  
< **Roach 2:** honestly I think the time we all just went HAM on it and tried not to think about strategy got us farthest.>

“You’re just saying that because Jaskier’s here with us and that’s his _entire play style,”_ Lambert complained.

“I resemble that remark!” Jaskier gasped, affronted.

“You sure as fuck do, you reckless, feral bastard.” Lambert agreed.

“Can we _please_ focus, yes?” Mieczyk sighed, “I have to do work in two hours and I don’t know when I can do raiding again this week.”

Eskel didn’t know what their Polish guild member did for work but a quick glance at the clock reminded him that it was nearly six in the morning for the man. _Jesus_ , when did the guy sleep?

“Right, we can probably at least get him through his second phase if we do the HAM method. Anyone have any other insights that might help?” He asked the group, figuring it would be faster and better for his hands in the long run to just talk out loud.

Ashwood hummed, audible over the voice chat as well, “Okay. Okay I have an idea. It’s probably crazy but nothing else has worked so far, plus we have the wildcard of having Jaskier here with us.”

Another affronted gasp from Jaskier before Ashwood continued.

“Compliment, Jask. It was a compliment,” Ashwood smiled. “Anyway, Roach is Barbarian spec right now, right?” Geralt’s character did the agreement emote in game and Ashwood nodded in real life, “That means we’ve got 40 fighters, 5 ranged and spellcasters, 4 healers and Jask. What if I hang back with Jask, let the other healers head up with the ranged and spellcasters and then the 40 fighters just keep hitting the damn thing until it dies? I’ll keep Jask up until we figure out what he can add to the fight.”

“That seems entirely reasonable. From what Mieczyk has shown me the bastard does seem to be a frightening sort of chap. If he’s anything like those fiends we were fighting before, I think I’ll be much happier farther away from him!” Jaskier said.

“Those were _devils_ not fiends, Jaskier,” Lambert corrected.

“Well, yes, but I meant fiend as in the poetic nature of the word, not the creature,” Jaskier said.

“We can go over semantics later, boys. Let’s just try this again and see if it works,” Ashwood pinched his nose as he laughed at the two bickering over what the previous enemies were called.

Eskel smiled at his boyfriend’s back dopily. Fuck he loved this man so much.

And then they were entering the final boss’s room. The melee fighters scattered around his feet as he ran through his opening speech before they were allowed to hit him, the ranged fighters and spellcasters placing themselves at roughly even intervals among them, and the four other healers stood behind them, just out of range of the boss’s sweeping attacks. 

Eskel heard the sounds of Ashwood tapping his hotkeys to prep the healing spells he’d need as he Quen’ed the nearby fighters and Yrden’ed at the boss’s feet along with several of the other mages to try and keep the boss from doing *too* much damage right at the outset.

The boss finished its monologue and the entire guild readied themselves to begin when Jaskier’s character started playing music immediately. It echoed through the boss room in a way that the group hadn’t heard from any of the buff-bot style Bards before. Jaskier could be heard over the VC smacking frantically at his keyboard and mouse.

“Miecz? Miecz what’s it doing? I’m not doing that! I want to make it stop! I don’t want him to notice me!”

“I don’t know! I don’t know what it’s doing!” Mieczyk called back over the voice chat, also clicking loudly enough to be heard over his headset. The boss wasn’t _moving_.

The guild stepped into action as the bard’s song continued, unleashing all of their spells and abilities on the boss as quickly as they could, trying to get his health as low as possible before whatever the fuck was happening stopped and they were demolished. The healers all kept their spells at the ready but the boss continued to not move.

Finally Jaskier’s character stopped playing music and the boss moved, but only to become un-hittable as he shrank down.

“You have brought with you a talented bard who plays my favorite music: Lute,” The boss said. “His song has calmed my ire, and as a favor to you for providing me such beautiful music, I will let your party pass through. You have with you now my blessing.” The boss then dematerialized and everyone had a loot menu pop onto their screens.

“What the fuck?” Lambert was the first to speak, opening the floodgates as everyone received the achievement for the raid simultaneously and expressed their disbelief. “What the fuck!”

“Holy shit, Jask. You’re a genius. The lute. Holy fuck of course it’s the bard spec no one picks!” Mieczyk cried out, “Holy fuck! Holy shit!”

The chat was a nightmare and Eskel didn’t try to keep up, just setting his laptop down quickly to stand in excitement, “Holy shit, we did it! We beat the fucking boss and we don’t have to do this _goddamn_ raid again!” He exclaimed bouncing a little on the balls of his feet as Ashwood shot out of his own chair and wrapped his arms around Eskel, nearly getting caught in his headset wire for a moment before he managed to spin around the correct way.

“We did it!” Ashwood agreed, before landing a huge kiss on Eskel’s mouth in excitement, “Holy shit I love you so much, we did it!”

Eskel’s heart felt fit to burst as he squeezed Ashwood tight, “Fuck yeah, _fuck yeah_ holy shit. I love you!” They spun around a little, getting wrapped in Ashwood’s headset wire as they kissed a few more times.

“Uh, hey Ash?” Aiden’s voice—rarely heard on VC—came through Ashwood’s headset and Eskel only heard it because of the proximity of his face to Ashwood’s, “Hey uh. Your headset’s still on.”

Ashwood froze, his eyes going wide, “Oh no.”

“Yeah, and also congrats for finally fucking saying it,” Aiden said, “Now turn your fucking mic off, bro.”

Ashwood untangled himself from Eskel and his headset, smacking keys on his keyboard to shut off the voice chat as he set his headset down. He continued to hover over his desk even after he finished for a moment and Eskel felt his heart speed up, this time out of anxiety rather than excitement.

“Ash? You okay?” He asked, softly.

“Uh, fine. I’m fine. I… Was just very excited, is all,” He muttered, not looking at Eskel.

“Well, I mean I gathered. We’ve been trying to do that for *months.* But something’s been wrong and you said you loved me and now you’re all quiet? Did… did you not mean to say it?” Eskel felt his heart drop. He’d meant it when he’d said it back but if Ashwood didn’t actually _mean_ that he’d loved Eskel, if it was just something he said because of the heat of the moment… Eskel didn’t think he’d take his back but he wasn’t sure how to handle if Ashwood didn’t feel the same.

“I… didn’t think we were ready yet?” Ashwood tried, finally looking away from his computer, though he stayed leaned over it as he turned back towards Eskel. “I… oh _fuck_ everyone _heard.”_

“Geralt knew.” Eskel said suddenly, the cryptic text from earlier finally making sense, “You’d told him.”

Ashwood flushed bright pink, “Yeah. Yeah sorry. I asked him not to say anything though. He didn’t, did he?”

“No,” Eskel shook his head, “Didn’t understand what he was saying about it until just now. You love me, though? Like… for real?” Eskel didn’t wait for Ashwood to respond, “Because I love you, and I wasn’t gonna say it til you were ready but like it’s been for a while and I really hoped you loved me too, but if you’re not there yet that’s fine. I won’t take it back but I’ll try not to say it anymore if you don-”

Eskel was cut off by Ashwood attaching himself to his lips again. He grunted in happy surprise before returning the kiss, wrapping his arms around Ashwood tightly. Ashwood pulled back after a while, “I do. I love you.”

“Fuck yeah, I love you too,” Eskel breathed out. “Best raid night _ever.”_


End file.
